8th graders have looked at how we can use ordinary things as inspiration for our work. We looked at mandalas, which are circle designs created to represent wholeness and are often made by Buddhist or Hindu people. The 8th graders created their own mandala using numbers or letters. We learned about radial symmetry and creating a circle with equal sections so that the design would repeat and connect all around the circle. They also worked on blending the colored pencils to create darker and lighter values of their colors.